Was at Strikers pub yesterday with some friends. A brilliant place to be in Gurgaon when you want to have a good time. Excellent beer, great music(live music in the evenings) and excellent food. A go-to place if you want to have a good time.

The only negative is also not that big a negative-Location. It’s in DLF golf course road in the midst of construction activity. Definitely will become a positive in the future.

This is what I am working on currently from the Consumer financing end.. Well, retailers and consumer finance companies that deal with retailers look mostly at the same variable – Sales. We want to increase sales and so do the retailers. We want it to be done through revolving credit and they don’t care how ! That kind of makes us partners. We come up with all those intuitive and wonderful offers and discounts that you have seen popping up in your account screens and make you purchase. You get a neat discount, we increase our sales and retailers improve their bottom line !

Its a win-win for retailers, consumer credit card companies and you, the consumer – We all gain through this??

Yeahh.. thats true in a way but false in a lot of ways. We give you flexibility but we also read your mind through your actions. We are the calm types that just capitalize on your folly. Some would disagree at this point saying that they have a higher working capital and a greater flexibility in wielding their finances – You are right ! People such as Warren Buffet have capitalized on the word “Credit” and made a fortune out of it. Well, not everyone is a Warren Buffet and most of them lose the money. On the contrary, a successful figure such as Warren Buffet may just as well rope in millions of simpletons into the system – “Category Membership” as it is called 😛 .So, we gain nothing through your happiness and you we just wait till you made a transaction you cannot repay and then fine you heavily for that -55% of our earnings are through lending activities (You read it right)..

Why Big Data Analytics ??

You would wonder what big data analytics has to do with any of this. There is a lot – trust me on that .. With your data, we read your actions and map you to people who behave like you. We have a fancy word for that – “Segmentation”. We target your mini-group (target population) with offers that you like and make you buy a little more than what you typically do. We run such customized campaigns throughout the year for all target populations and keep you engaged with our brand, and make you keep purchasing from us. Both me and you are happy in this transaction. Every customer spends a little extra from his pocket through this credit line that we extend and that adds to our bottom line and so as to the retailers. Also, we see how you respond in “Blogs” and “social media forums” (I may be tracked here :P) and give you what you like .. Big Data Analytics does seem Big indeed.

Well, thats what I am working on this summer. Hope you found my candid view interesting 🙂

In the following poem, I blatantly criticize how corruption affects the country by comparing it to that of a mother – child relation. While on one end we have selfless love from the mother who takes care of her children, corruption affects the child, who no longer protects the mother from hardship. Moreover, the child himself goes ahead in inflicting damage to his own mother through his activities. The mother makes an emotional cry to her brave and just children to protect her against those corrupt and hopes that her silent sobs are soothed by action by her other brave and just sons. In this poem, I speak about the distance increasing and affection reducing. That happens as both mother and child do not know what the other is doing because of the virtual gap created due to ignorance and lack of awareness.

Poem:

Sons and daughters! I hold you dearYou, my child, have made me fear.I take care of you with pride aplombWatching and fussing you bomb and comb.I work hard, day in and day out.Watch, my friends! How independent and smart!My child is the best – claims the mom,My duty is fulfilled, i feel that come.“Alas, my mom! I grow dark and grave”Norm it is – Darkness pervades.How stupid, yet how smart!Darkness brought me money,Money brought me luxury.At last, we lost the light,that creates, bestows thy might.The child cried, the mom cried.Why has life gone wrong ?Mom knew not the child knew whatChild knew not the mom knew whatDistance increases, affection reduces.I get ready, know not, to kill my mom.Mugged and raped,She faced her fears.Coward sons of infortune, you showed the rear.Sons of providence, i call you here,She cries alone with no one to hear.What have you done to stop the deed?All i hope is you will stop the bleed.

Federer wins comfortably today; i think today is his lucky day. I again see him winning comfortably tomorrow and for the rest of the year . This makes me gape in awe .

It is fascinating to watch Federer, Sachin or Messi perform. This is because we know that they are the best and they will prove once again that they are the best in the world.This consistency in their victories makes me think as to what is so different with them ? Is it that they have realized their strength early and have directed their efforts properly in that direction or that they have been born with extra talents and powers? Even the personality of these “greats” makes me wonder as to what keeps them going after attaining so much success so early in their life. Is it fame or excellence or mere existence that drives them? So, what makes the difference between these people and the other people who are caught in the rat-race.

Mankind has not been kind to everyone and nor can it be. That is why Communism is a failed theory – Not everyone is the same and cannot be accepted to be the same. It might be our desire to want to be the Alpha-male in any group but desire and prowess are different. As an illustration, think what would happen if 100 hundred males are kept together in the same level. The males differentiate themselves based on their prowess and settle down in roles comfortable to them – the like-minded fight it out and the best one wins the role. This is the universal logic – there can be only one best and no one better.

The Romantic will always look at the bright side of life. Even in destruction, he will view future construction .

Last Thursday, while i was at office, I received an email from Aashaiyen Foundation asking me whether i wanted to participate in the “Gift your village” activity that Saturday. I quickly checked my schedule and saw that i had absolutely nothing planned for the weekend. Only involved in urban community development till then, this event posed as a refresher as it was located at Bagepalli, a village 88km from Bangalore. I figured out that I will be experiencing Karnataka’s raw culture and meeting a new sect of people who had a different outlook of life. So, thinking on these lines, I enrolled myself for the event and had a quick conversation over the phone with the organizer on the logistics and transportation.The activity was planned for Saturday and I was told to arrive at Sivaji Nagar at 6AM for helping out with the loading of the books that were to be distributed to the students in the village schools. However, I was able to make it only at 6:30AM and most of the loading was already done by the other volunteers. We had a quick round of introductions followed by which some of us went and parked our motorcycles at a nearby trustee’s house. We were all set to leave to Bagepalli by 7AM.Morning time in Bangalore is always a visual treat ;the sky is a mild blue at that time and the dew drops that lay on the road and grass gives the landscape a contrasting hue. We savored the beauty for a short while, after which we embarked on our trip to Bagepalli via NH7. The national highway has its own share of stunning visuals and we were lucky to get some fantastic shots of Nandi hills and Skandagiri peak. We made quick time and reached the local coordinator’s house at Bagepalli by an hour and half. We got acquainted with him and came to know that he was a retired engineer who had worked abroad prior to retirement and had returned to his village after retirement to utilize his expertise and skills to develop the place. We were offered a breakfast of hot idlis and chutney, after which we drove to Penamale Higher School,which was a half-hour drive from there. As we were getting down from the Tempo-Traveler at the school, we heard cheering from a huge student crowd. I and the other volunteers saw around 250 students cheering and clapping at us – surprising as we were not expecting a welcome at all. After quick introductions with the village headman, we were directed to the makeshift dais, where we were made to sit along with the village headman and other important folk of the village. The faculty of Penamale Higher Secondary School honored us by presenting each one of us a fresh red rose picked from the garden. One of the volunteers had a Nikon SLR D3100 and we started clicking pictures of the students, the function and the rural environment. We heard several speeches made by faculties and by the headman on the importance of education and importance of outside involvement to develop the village’s standard of education. After hearing the speeches, we took over and started distributing the books to the students. We totally made a contribution of 1300 books to the Bagepalli village. After completing the distribution of books, we went for a stroll in the village. The village-folk were very hospitable and invited us to their households. After tasting few delicacies of the Karnataka-type village households and roaming through the village for a solid one-hour, we decided that it was time to leave back to Bangalore. So we bid adieu to the village children, who were following us, and returned back to the local coordinator’s house to drop him. We were about to say our goodbyes when the coordinator’s wife called us and requested us to have lunch with her and her husband. They threw us a mini-feast, in which we had a complete Karnataka-style lunch with sweets and kheer.

We bid byes to everyone there and started to Bangalore once again. The ride back was fun as we had gotten to know each other better. We played a few travel games and recounted our experiences of volunteering to each other. The trip was unforgettable to me as i not only enjoyed immersing myself in the Karnataka-style hospitality but also contributed to the rustic society. Hope to be back to the village to do further work with them..

Disclaimer: I am sure that when you look at the photos,you wouldn’t have a single emotion in your mind. That is solely due to the fact that you were not a player in the game. If you notice however that you are a player in the game, then i am sorry to have put up your photo..

Requisites

1.Personal Album

2.Any distant relative would do.. If you feel that you don’t understand yourself properly , that would do.

“A Photo has a lot in common to cotton string ; one leads to another and by the time you know it, a flurry of emotions and memories flood your mind”

Far from going out of fashion, the camera is not only getting more powerful but also being integrated into every other device that we use.The camera’s popularity is attributed to the perception that it is a memory-clincher, not a photo- clincher. These photos(memories) are all part of a bigger canvas called life that we have sewn together in our lifetime.Basically , we are all tailors in profession; here also we have good as well as bad tailors.

A photo of a bird in flight could be viewed as a natural beauty for a nature lover, freedom for the suppressed, or a Kingfisher for a teenager. What one perceives wouldn’t be perceivable for the other because of the way he has been exposed to.

“Google and The Human Brain work in the same fashion. Any input you provide to your brain is run as a query and the relevant memories start flooding your brain”

Photos do pose some social problems too. I am sure those with large families have faced this problem before. Relatives that you meet once or twice in your lifetime start showing you their family albums and introduce you to each and every character in the album with such fine detail that you would be able to tell their entire horoscope when you are finished. Well, the time spent thus is(I am not a fan of calculations but this is for the left brain junkies out there..)

Number of such relatives *2*100*3

2= Meeting such a relative twice, ie, if you are unlucky.

100= Average no. of photographs per visit

3= 3 minutes is the ideal time that is spent on each photograph. You try to rush it through but they too are the relentless type; the struggle eventually always ends up at 3 minutes..

“I am a big fan of taking photos but am not the die-hard type to have a photo for every memory. Some memories are best played back in the mind”

I am sure that you would be wondering why i have uploaded these photos, that’s easy, these are the worst digital photos that could be uploaded online without getting marked off as vulgar by Google Crawler. Each photo captures the essence of the characters at that time and would be lively to do a comparison in a few years

Several weeks before Apple is expected to weigh in with a multimedia device with 10-inch touch display, Hewlett-Packard unveiled the prototype of a slate-type computer during Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer’s evening address at the Consumer Electronics Show here.

The HP device, also touted as a multimedia device with video player, e-reader and multitouch, should be available this year. No name or price were announced.

It’s "a beautiful little product," Ballmer said. He showed a demo of the slate PC running Kindle software for the PC, which made the slate look much like a Kindle but in full color.

Earlier, Lenovo introduced what it claims is the first hybrid PC for consumers with a detachable screen that can function as a multitouch slate tablet or a clamshell laptop.

"We are seeing the next wave of technology — the convergence of the Internet, Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, and its impact on everything from smartphones to netbooks to slate computers," says Rory Read, president of Lenovo.

Both had better be good, analysts caution, because Apple’s tablet is expected to make a big splash. Apple has declined to comment on its plans.

The new entries should invigorate the middling $950 million U.S. market for tablets, says David Daoud, an analyst at IDC. Sales declined 25% in 2008, and were expected to drop again in 2009. "Apple could do for the tablet market what it did for smartphones with iPhone," Daoud says.

Indeed, Apple could help define a decade-old market interpreted as anything from a large phone to a Kindle or slate device, says Mike Stinson, vice president of marketing at tablet manufacturer Motion Computing.

Ballmer’s second address as Microsoft CEO focused on new PCs, software and product momentum, most of it tied to Windows 7. He said PC sales jumped 50% the week of the Windows 7 launch on Oct. 22. Holiday PC sales surged 50%, year-over-year, largely due to Windows 7, according to market research firm NPD.

Ballmer was joined onstage by Robbie Bach, head of Microsoft’s entertainment division. Project Natal, Microsoft’s controller-free gaming and entertainment system for the Xbox 360, will be ready for the holidays in 2010. It lets gamers play through spoken commands and gestures.

I have been in Karnataka for the past six months but it was just two weeks ago that i got the chance to explore this magnificent state. Having been in several uninteresting trips in other states of India, we had a ZERO expectation from this tour; that was the only disappointment for me in the entire tour.

“ The command that nature has over our heart is surprising, two completely contradicting forces created ; The calmness pervading in nature can be matched only by the turbulence pervading in our hearts ”

Two days of nature in December’s cold climate is a treat for everyone. My fruit of the basket would be Talacauvery and Madikeri. The beauty of the Coorg mountain was enhanced by the colorful girls who played and danced in the streams and dew-filled green meadows. The Talacavery is exceptionally beautiful in the early mornings as we get to see the revelry of the mist. In a couple of minutes, the mist brings about so many visionary changes to the landscape that it delights photographers and others equally. It covers all god’s creations with a translucent white blanket and even the most clouded of hearts obtains clarity for a couple of moments. As the mist fades from view, it regains form in our hearts allowing us to continue our mindless struggle

I shouldn’t forget the most sarcastically impressive place in the trip – Nagerhole National Park. No regrets on not being able to see many wild animals as we got to see a lot of domesticated wild animals( oxymoron is a must here). We got to see a overly civilized kind of deer (breed i am unfamiliar with + photo added) which would eat chips and bajjis but wouldn’t accept grass or straw. There were other relatively wild deers and shy elephants that we encountered in our safari trip. They claim that there are panthers there and as i heard the standard answer as to when they saw them was 3 days ago.

Overall this trip was excellent and is a must go for everyone who has a weekend and a 1500 rupees to spare. I hope our guide is the permanent guide of this trip as he had a soothing voice and an amazing vocabulary of some language he spoke ( I think he mentioned Welcome and Ladies and Gentlemen somewhere in his loquacious speech)